A Different Perspective
by LeNapoleon
Summary: History told from the perspective of a small country that became powerful enough to survive by having the right allies at the right moment...
1. Introduction

**Introduction**

 _ **This is Ponsbello**_

Ponsbello is a small country slightly larger than Switzerland located between France, Italy and, when she was younger, Spain. She was called by the romans "the bridge" because she united the three regions.

She started originally as a couple of villages on, what you'll call, the southerns french coasts, as they took important significance in the roman trade, they were consolidated in one small region destinated to become something stronger.

She, as well as her neighbours, is Rome's Grandaughter. She used to called him Nono, and after realizing she was a nation as well, he named her, "Pons" for bridge and "-bella" for pretty, both in latin.

This compilation tells her history in short stories that will explain her relationships with other countries.

We hope you'll enjoy.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

 _ **"Childhood"**_

 **Part1**

It was like any other day at the harbour, ships were sailing, merchandise was being moved around and the air smelled of salt, fish and things so disgusting that they were not worth mentioning.

Adara was walking around, shouting orders to the sailors and, as usually, being ignored by them. They were used to her, although they thought that it was odd to have a child pestering in the harbour, she was Julius Caesar's relative. The man was important to the Emperor, and that's all they needed to know to stop asking questions.  
Adara was there since early morning because it was a special day. That day, her grandfather was coming to visit. His visits were rare, and kept getting rarer with time. Being so young she couldn't comprehend why him preferred to be on a dirty ship than to be with his favourite grandchild, but he insisted that he was busy, and that the time he spent away, he spent it to make her life easier.

"Adara!" She heard from the distance. "Adara!" She turned around to spot in the crowd two familiar faces.

"Nono!" She run through the people at his direction.

When she finally got to him, he took her in his arms. "I missed you, Nono!"

"I know darling, but I've been very busy and this uptight over here wouldn't let me come to take some vacations"

"I have told you, Julius, to stop calling me like that!" The blond man expressed irritated.

"Yes, whatever Burkhard" He turn to the brunette in his arms."Now pretty, I've someone I'd like you to meet" He put her on the ground and grab her hand, leading her out of the port.

On the street was waiting her and her Nono's letica (*), next to them were the servants and a woman, whom Adara had never seen before.

As they got closer, Adara could tell that the woman was wearing a long light pink dress, sandals and tons of golden jewelry.

"Alcmene" The woman turned around, her eyes were a beautiful green. "Love, this is Adara." Introduced Rome.

She looked down to the little girl and smiled. "Hello darling, my name is Alcmene it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"You are beautiful lady" Responded in awe the child. This gained a sweet laugh from Alcmene.

"Thank you."

During their trip home, Adara was told that the lovely lady was going to be her new teacher, she was going to make sure that the girl learned how to administrate and take care of the city when her Nono was away.  
The child was a little disappointed that it wasn't her Nono who was going to teach her such things but, once again, he was a very busy man and Alcmene didn't seemed bad.

Time passed and Adara was fully capable of administrate on her own.  
During this short period of time, she got to known the lady, apparently she was one of Nono's dearest friends, she loved fish and salad (just like her!) and had a son call Heracles who was quite younger than she.  
Even though she didn't want the lady to go away, she was excited to finally be of her grandfather's trust.

Years passed and Adara was an expert at the administration of the port and city. She still looked like a young child but felt stronger. She didn't have much time to roam the port and Rome barely visited her, specially since Veneziano was born.  
You see, the day Alcmena left, a letter arrived from Rome. He had found another "region", like he liked to called them.  
He decided to called him Veneziano, and was now staying at his place, unlike she and Lovino, that lived in different houses, under a tutor's care.  
With time she had realised that she was no longer the favourite, it was the newborn.  
Veneziano was quickly old enough to go with his Nono to new places, places Adara only dreamed of because Rome never took her with him.  
It was an understatement to say that she was jealous, but this jealousy was what took her closer to her other brother, Lovino.  
Through letters, they would expressed their negative feelings towards the youngest Vargas. Various times they had thought of ways to get rid of their brother, one of them being sent him to Germania, who was known for having extreme methods to discipline children. Despite the hate, they couldn't bring themselves to do it, and it wasn't that they were just children or that they were to far apart to come up with a proper plan, it was the fact that they were family. They had been taught that family was the center of everything, and they did, and to this day do, respect that statement.

Adara was sitting in her "office" like tent, reading the documentation of the ships that had arrived that day. One of the ships was especially important because it's merchandise was hers, Spain's, France's and England's port's taxes, they were vital for Rome and needed to be there in time. Being on charge of the last port, she had to make sure that everything was on board when the ship sailed.  
After finishing the arrangements, the girl went to sleep, not knowing that Germania was spying on her.

Months passed and she forgot about the ship, thinking that it arrived safely to Naples, where Lovino was supposed to sent it to Rome.  
It wasn't until she saw her Nono's ship that she remembered of it. She was glad that he finally had finally visited, so when Adara saw him, she got worried.  
Rome looked weak, his arms were full of scars, recent ones, his eyes seemed tired and paranoid and his tanned skin looked pale. But what surprised Adara the most, was that he was angry, she never saw him angry, at least at her. Sure he shouted a lot of orders, but not with anger.  
He got closer and grabbed her by the arm and took her inside the office.

"Nono you're hurting me!"

"What did you do with the money?" He screamed at the girl. Adara's eyes got filled with tears, she was scared.

"What do you mean?" She managed to say.

"You know what I mean, the taxes! They were supposed to arrived at Rome a month ago and they didn't, Lovino said that they didn't arrived at Naples either, so you were the last one at their charge."

The girl was trembling under his gaze, she wanted to run away and hide from this man who looked, but didn't acted like her grandfather. "I did, I sent it! You can ask anyone and they'll tell you I did! I swear!"

"Don't lie to me! I know someone is betraying me and I'm sure you're working with them! Because of you I'm weaker than ever, and now they can take advantage!" His grip on the little girl's arm got tighter with each word.

"Let go of me!" Adara bit her grandfather's hand and started running away from the port.

Rome got out of the tent and in the rage wave he ordered to close down the harbour. His guards started throwing merchandise and even people in the water to make everyone leave. By the end of the day there was no one else around, the place was a mess and Adara found herself starving, cold and alone in the fields. The girl collapsed on the grass and passed out...

(*) _Letica_ : A kind of litter, attached to it were poles and it was carried on the shoulders by slaves.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

 **" _Childhood_ "**

 **Part** **2**

She opened her eyes, she felt weak and her head was pounding. She sat up on the bed made out of heno, hazel orbs examined the room. This was clearly not her bedroom, this was smaller and the scenery that could be seen through the window was not the coast, but a dry meadow.

She noticed two trunks and a similar bed to the one she was laying on. There was no door, instead a curtain hung from the frame.

Just before she could get out of the bed, she heard the creaking of a wooden door, followed by voices coming from the adjacent room. From what she could hear, they were two boys, and they where walking towards her room.

"You are awake!" Exclaimed the brunette haired boy as he entered the room holding a cup filled with, presumably, water. He seemed about her age, actually, she knew him, she had seen him before, he once came in one of Nono's ships and sold some bulls to the girl, he had also commented that he was one of her neighbours. "Thank God! You've been four days like this!" He approached to the bed "We were starting to get worried" He sounded cheerful, but his loud voice echoed inside her head like a hammer.

Her eyes widened at his words, "was _she passed out for four days?"_ Her head started flowing with questions " _where was she? what had happened?"_ Her headache getting worse as the pieces of the puzzle fell together. _"oh no"_

"Adara? Adara!" She opened her eyes, tears running down her cheeks. There sitting on his bed was Francis, long blond hair messy from bed and blue eyes filled with worry. He stood up from his bed and walked to hers, just like Spain had done all those years ago.

Adara seemed older now, eight years, maybe nine. She was living now under France's roof, after Spain was obligated to forced an alliance with Austria via royal marriage they decided to start one themselves.

"What was it this time?" He whispered taking her hand.

Her second to inherit the throne married his first one, and she decided to moved with him to his house, since it will make the communication between them easier.

"You are getting tired of this, aren't you?"

The deal was to get protection and army from him and she would trade with him without taxes, instead she would payed or you could even say donated him the money that she doesn't need, thanks to this Francis could afford all of their wars.

Together they reconstructed her port, making it bigger, prettier and turned into her capital. If I recall you call it "Marseille".

"Just a tiny bit, but don't worry, you are my friend" He smiled down, looking at their hands. "I just want you to forgive yourself and move on from your past"

Of course there were harsh times between them, like that time that she refused to donate the money France demanded just to afford the conquest of Naples, her little brother's territory.

"I'll try..." She promised.

They made up from their dispute when he came home exhausted, starving, weak and defeated, basically a mess, and she donate money and food for his troops and people.

"Come on now" He said laying next to her "Tell me about it"

They had been lately talking about ambitions, and she had been entirely honest with him, she wanted independence more than anything, she wanted her own army. He was taken back by this at first but then understood, she wanted to keep their alliance only with a different deal a less dependent one. He decided that he would give her one eventually but first he needed her to fight the Holy Roman Empire, she had never met him so decided to accept the offer.

"It was about the day I met you... but then turn into a panic attack..."

Little did she knew what she had gotten herself into...

Let just say I'm sorry... my inspiration for the early medival ages wasn't kicking in so i wrote this instead, a brief resume about Adara's relationship with our lovely Francis.

Don't worry there'll be more about the medival ages and eventually will get to the renascence so please be patient you lovely reader (if you even are there).

Chau!

~L.N.


End file.
